Seldom do you see someone slapping at the trigger of a gun. Tuscarawas County Prosecutor Ryan Styer did that several times Friday — without the revolver firing.

“It’s nearly impossible for the gun to discharge in that situation,” Styer said during closing arguments, regarding the gun in the attempted murder trial of Mary Darlene Brown.

Public defender Mark Perlaky again stressed, during his closing arguments, that it was an accidental shooting.

Also known as Darlene Brown, the 64-year-old is charged with one count of attempted murder with a gun specification and one count of tampering with evidence. She is accused of shooting her husband, Ralph H. Brown, 61, once with the .38-caliber handgun while he slept in their Winfield-area home early Aug. 17. The bullet grazed the side of his head, and he was treated in Union Hospital in Dover.

It’s uncertain if the double-action revolver was cocked at the time of the shooting. Styer demonstrated the gun being in the cocked and uncocked positions.

A firearms expert testified earlier in the trial that it’s more than three times easier to fire the gun by pulling the trigger when the hammer is cocked, compared to the pull-strength required when the gun is uncocked.

Styer held the uncovered gun in his left hand, and slapped at the trigger inside the trigger guard with his right hand — but it didn’t fire, either cocked or uncocked. During the incident in the Browns’ home, the gun was inside a slipper sock, as Mary Brown usually kept it.

Perlaky again stressed, during his closing arguments, that it was an accidental shooting. He said Brown had changed her mind about shooting her husband or herself and was trying to put the gun away when it fell onto the bed and pillows and fired as she tried to retrieve it.

He said the direction of the bullet is “up and into the bedframe. How/why does it do that if she is holding the gun steady? If she’s falling, like she says, it makes sense that the bullet is going up and into the bed frame.”

He said the bullet only grazed the side of Ralph Brown’s head — more “evidence that it was fired in a haphazard manner.”

Much of the testimony during the trial focused on the different versions Mary Brown told detectives, and others, about what happened. Jurors viewed her videotaped interview at the county Sheriff’s Office to Detective Capt. Orvis Campbell. During the interview, Campbell confronts her about her comments being different than what sheriff’s detectives said she told them at the house.

“She knows that, again, she’s trapped in a lie that doesn’t match what she said at the house, and doesn’t match the evidence,” Styer said.

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Styer contended that “when you’re honest, you don’t have to worry about keeping your story straight” and listed 11 points of differences between versions.

Mary Brown’s friend and next-door neighbor, Cheri Harris, testified Wednesday that she visited Brown once in jail and three times in the nursing home where she’s staying until the case is resolved. Harris testified that the last time they talked prior to the shooting, a frustrated Brown told her, “there has to be a change,” and she intended to seek a divorce.

At the jail, Harris said Brown told her “I lost it. I’m sorry, and I know God has forgiven me.” About a month later, Brown told Harris that the gun went off accidentally, according to testimony.

Brown also is charged with tampering with evidence — accused of removing the bullet from the headboard and dropping it out the window of the Browns’ vehicle while en route to the hospital.

Styer listed that as one of six answers to the question, “Is Mary Brown capable of deception and manipulation?”

Perlaky countered that the extremely embarrassing aspects of the suicide attempt resulted in Mary Brown being reluctant to provide full details initially. He said as she provided more details, she was told by Campbell that he didn’t believe her, and she became flustered.

Perlaky contends that her words were taken out of context, and that it’s “maybe just the way she talks.”

“Mary Brown is not a criminal mastermind, and it’s foolish to think otherwise,” Perlaky said.

After closing arguments ended at about 3:30 p.m. Friday, the case was presented to the jury of eight women and four men. They deliberated for an hour without reaching a verdict.

Jurors will resume deliberations at 9:15 a.m. Monday in Tuscarawas County Common Pleas Court in New Philadelphia. Judge Edward O’Farrell is hearing the case.